Ellen DeGeneres' coming out fears

Ellen DeGeneres was convinced coming out would end her career.

The talk show host - who announced she was a lesbian in 1997 and also broke ground when her character on sitcom 'Ellen' revealed she was gay - admitted she "didn't think" she would ever disclose her sexuality because she had so many doubts about how it would impact on her career.

She said: "I didn't think I was going to come out, period. I didn't think I'd be coming out on a show, ever."

The 57-year-old star - who is married to actress Portia de Rossi - went on a retreat at California's Esalen Institute, where she took a course on changing the inner dialogue of the subconscious mind, and it made her realise that coming out was the right thing to do.

She added in a clip for a forthcoming episode of 'Oprah's Master Class':"It was scary and crazy and what came out of listening to what I had been saying to myself is, 'Would I still be famous? Would they still love me if they knew I was gay.' "I just didn't want to pretend to be somebody else anymore so that people would like me."